


Wandered Here

by chennieforyourthoughts



Series: the captain and his crew [5]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Kitsune, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-23 22:09:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13199574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chennieforyourthoughts/pseuds/chennieforyourthoughts
Summary: Felix finds himself with two strangers living in his home and two vulpine reflections in his mirror.





	Wandered Here

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hanabira](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanabira/gifts).



> A thank-you gift for [hanabira](http://archiveofourown.org/users/hanabira/pseuds/hanabira), who [translated "Natural-e" into Vietnamese!](https://harusaki0212.wordpress.com/2017/12/09/seunglix-natural-e/) Thank you again, and I hope you enjoy this. ♥
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>  [(Fanfic Disclaimer + More ♥)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chennieforyourthoughts/profile)  
> 

It was _cold,_ so cold that Felix’s breath puffed white in the winter air as the water sublimed on contact with it. He pulled his coat tighter around his body, hoping that it would continue to keep the worst of the chill out.

It was mostly failing.

 _At least the buttons aren’t grey tin,_ Felix thought to himself. _Small blessings, Felix, small blessings._

Felix smashed his pole back down, listening for the telltale _crack_ of the ice sheet covering the surface of his family’s well. He prayed it wasn’t frozen solid, because then he’d have to boil snow to get their water.

When he struck into liquid water and had punched a hole large enough to lower the bucket down into, Felix listened to the noises of the forest around him. If he was quiet enough and the clouds low, he could hear Changbin doing the same in a different part of the wood.

His water successfully gathered, Felix began the trek back to his family’s home.

It had long since stopped being a walk that made him anxious, as he had spent enough years in it to know the forest like the back of his hand. For that reason, when Felix walked past the particularly old tree next to the path he had carved, something made him pause.

Felix came to a stop and surveyed his surroundings, holding his breath to listen. And sure enough, there it was again— a soft cry carried to him on the wind. Had the wind been blowing south instead of southeast, he wouldn’t have heard it at all.

His curiosity getting the better of him, Felix decided to see what the problem was. He recognized the animal— it was a fox, tricky and hard to find, but beautiful enough to warrant the search. Felix and Changbin had spent many a spring following them, trying to catch a glimpse of a silver or white one.

“My dear Felix,” his mother had told him as soon as he was old enough to walk on his own through the woods, “keep a close watch on the foxes. They are sly and dangerous, but they can be kind, and they are not all that they seem, my son.”

Felix glanced up at the clouds overhead and decided it wouldn’t snow again before he had time to reach the source of the sound and return; for this reason, he was unafraid of leaving the path for a short while. The fresh snowfall muffled noises, so the sound in question couldn’t have come from too far away from his location.

White crunched under the soles of his boots, as light on his feet and quiet as he was. He didn’t hear any more cries as he walked.

When Felix reached a familiar clearing he had often visited with Changbin, he realized that the fox couldn’t have been any further in that direction or he would not have been able to hear it. He took a look around the area, checking the drifts, but didn’t see anything decisive.

Then he saw the prints heading across to the other side, and Felix followed them. Sure enough, there at the base of one of the trees lay a fox. It watched him approach with judging eyes, and before he got too close to it Felix crouched down to appear less threatening. “Hello there,” he murmured, “what’s your name?”

It stared at him before dropping its head back down onto the snow, evidently deciding Felix wouldn’t do it much harm.

“And I’m talking to a fox.” Felix shook his head at himself, but inched his hand closer to the creature. The fox looked at him again, and as Felix’s hand got just outside its range of motion it extended its neck to sniff it.

Before his eyes, the fox’s coat changed from red to white and it went limp. “Uh?” Felix extended both of his hands, but the fox didn’t move again. It appeared to be unconscious, but its breaths still made its chest rise and fall. “Okay, please don’t bite me.” Felix reached out and brushed one hand along its back, keeping the other close to its head so he could grab onto its muzzle if needed.

It didn’t move, and it didn’t move during the entirety of the time he spent wondering what he should do for it; he couldn’t leave it out in the snow because it would freeze to death, but he shouldn’t exactly take it home with him, either. His parents would return from the market within a fortnight, so it would have to be healed of whatever was affecting it by then.

There really wasn’t a choice, so Felix lifted it and retraced his steps back to his path. He didn’t notice how one tail banging against his arm became two, but he did wonder about the fox seeming to become heavier.

Felix _did_ notice when, upon stepping into his home, the fox became a black-haired boy— Felix nearly dropped him due to the change in weight, looked down, screamed, and practically threw him onto his bed in his haste to get away.

Thankfully, the fox— no, boy— didn’t wake, letting Felix regain his courage and approach him again. “Are you alright?” He asked, but didn’t hear any answer. “Okay, Felix, keep calm. Who can you ask for help?”

With one last look at the stranger unconscious on his favorite quilt, Felix took off across the snow.

 

“You’re telling me you found a sick fox, picked it up, took it home and it turned into a _boy?”_ Changbin stared at Felix in disbelief. “Did you ask his name?”

“He didn’t answer,” Felix told him. “I think he’s unconscious.” Changbin shook his head.

“Then I’ll come over with Jisung and we can identify him for you.” It was Felix’s turn to stare as Changbin stood and left the wooden table for the door. “JISUNG!” He shouted, and Felix watched as a flurry of snow ensued in the distance. A few minutes after it had settled, Jisung appeared at Changbin’s door.

“Hey, Felix!” Jisung exclaimed, seemingly unbothered by the fact he didn’t seem to be wearing a shirt. In the December snow.

“Really, Jisung? You lost it again?” Jisung pouted at Changbin, who sighed but tracked down a shirt nonetheless. Felix was surprised to identify it as one of Jisung’s instead of a spare from Changbin.

“Thank you, hyung! Have I mentioned that you’re my favorite?”

“Pssh, _everyone_ knows Chan’s your favorite.”

Felix narrowed his eyes; he’d never heard of a Chan before, let alone one who could be called “hyung” by Jisung. _Perhaps he was from the village down the mountain, or from the market?_

“Felix-ah is having a fox problem,” Changbin explained, and Jisung fixed Felix with a knowing gaze.

“What’d you do this time, Felix-ah?”

“I only brought a sick one home, I swear!” Felix threw his hands out in front of himself, making Jisung laugh. “I just wanted to help!”

 

Jisung inhaled sharply upon entering. “Oh, it smells.”

Changbin and Felix had the feeling he wasn’t talking about the remaining fox-scent clinging to the house and Felix’s clothes.

Jisung crossed over to Felix’s bed where the boy was still asleep and quickly shoved him under the covers. “You didn’t cover him up? He’s got to be freezing! Hey, Changbin hyung, can you get me a pair of Felix’s loosest-fitting pants?”

Felix stood still as the duo moved around him. If he was being honest, he had completely forgotten about clothes— or blankets— in his shock.

“You said you could identify him,” Felix reminded Changbin, and Jisung finally looked away from the stranger.

“He can’t, but I can,” Jisung said simply, and Felix nodded to show he was listening. “This here is someone I know, but his name doesn’t translate into your tongue easily. None of ours do, really. Only he will be able to tell you.”

Felix’s mouth dropped open, but he was lost for words. Changbin leaned in to whisper to him as Jisung went back to checking the now-heavily-wrapped-boy. “What do you know about kitsune, Felix-ah?”

 

A day later, Felix had determined that the snow had disoriented him enough on his walk home that he believed he had picked up a fox when it had truly been a boy all along, that Changbin and Felix were either similarly crazy or playing him, and that he had to do something to wake the boy because he wouldn’t get any better without food.

And so Felix found himself going hunting, setting traps for hares if there were any to be found. He spent the rest of his time keeping the house clean, and then cleaning it again. It wasn’t to keep his mind off the strange boy sleeping in his bed, was it?

It was on one of the successful snaring days, a few days after the boy had first arrived, when Felix tried making a rabbit stew. It wasn’t going too poorly; he’d been taking care of himself while his parents were away for multiple years, and as such he’d had to learn how to cook for himself. On the third time he went to stir it, Felix took a quick glance back at the bed out of habit.

And there was no one there.

“Is that rabbit? I love rabbit! Almost as much as I love tofu, but tofu is still better.”

Once again, Felix _screamed._

Standing directly behind him was fox-boy, still clad in Felix’s loosest pair of pants but sans blankets. He was so silent Felix hadn’t been able to hear him breathe. In this case, however, he looked more positively confused than predatory.

“…. Yes it is! And I’m Felix.”

The stranger smiled, and Felix got the feeling that he wouldn’t be a stranger any longer. “Felix? I’m…. Seungmin.” It seemed that Seungmin had to take a moment to remember his name, but then Felix remembered what Jisung had told him— Seungmin would have never used his human name before.

“Well then, Seungmin, I’m glad you like rabbit— I made it for you.”

If there had been something odd in how easily Jisung had inserted himself into Felix’s and Changbin’s friendship, Felix could feel the same in Seungmin.

“But first,” Felix sighed, “we need to get you a shirt.”


End file.
